Toilet paper roll holding device

ABSTRACT

A toilet paper roll holding device comprising a housing receiving a plurality of toilet paper rolls one upon another with their axes lying in parallel to each other and including a pair of spaced side walls provided with paper roll core guide grooves; a rockable paper roll receiving and core discharge member pivoted to said side walls and including a pair of spaced arms extending uprightly; a pair of arcuate tracks formed on said side walls on which said arms are guided as said rockable member is pivoted; and operation means for said rockable member provided on one of said arms and one of said side walls adjacent to said one arm.

United States Patent ()kamura 1 Feb. 11, 1975 [54] TOILET PAPER ROLLHOLDING DEVICE 2,806,529 9/1957 Bulman 312/39 X Inventor: Tadasu Okamum26] 3,770,222 11/1973 .lespersen 312/39 X g z q gf g 4 Chome PrimaryExaminer-James C. Mitchell Una as I apan Attorney, Agent. or FirmHammond& Littell [22] Filed: Sept. 13, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 396,749 [57].AB.STRAC.T

A tollet paper roll holding device comprising a housu ing receiving aplurality of toilet paper rolls one upon Foreign pp Priority Dataanother with their axes lying in parallel to each other Dec. 29. 1972Japan 47-3587 and including a pair of spaced side walls provided withpaper roll core guide grooves; a rockable paper roll [52] US. Cl 225/47,225/53, 225/77, receiving and core discharge member pivoted to said242/553, 312/39 side walls and including a pair of spaced arms extend-[51] Int. Cl B65h 19/00 ing uprightly; a pair of arcuate tracks formedon said [58] Field of Search 312/39, 42; 242/553 side walls on whichsaid arms are guided as said rockable member is pivoted; and operationmeans for said [56] References Cited rockable member provided on one ofsaid arms and UNITED STATES P T T one of said side walls adjacent tosaid one arm. 1,057,973 4/1913 Merritt 242/553 4 Claims, 5 DrawingFigures PATENTEB FEB] 1 I975 SHEET 1 BF 2 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to a novel and improved toilet paper roll holdingdevice and more particularly, to a novel and improved toiletpaper rollholding device which holds a plurality of toilet paper rolls therein insuch a manner that each time a toilet roll paper in the paying-out ordispensing position has been exhausted, the empty core is immediatelydischarged out of the paying-out position and at the same time a next orspare full paper roll is moved into the now vacant paying-out position.

There have been proposed and practically employed a variety of toiletpaper roll holding devices and in one of the prior art toilet paper rollholding devices, in order to discharge the empty core the paper roll onwhich has been exhausted out of the paying-out or dispensing positionand to move a new or spare toilet paper roll into the now vacantpaying-out position, a relatively complicated and expensive transfermechanism is required. Although a relatively simpler transfer mechanismfor the above purpose has been proposed, by the use of such a transfermechanism, the discharge of the empty core out of the paying-outposition and the placement of a new or spare toilet paper roll into thenow vacant paying-out position have to be effected in two separatesteps.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, one principal object of the presentinvention is to provide an improved toilet paper roll holding device forholding a plurality of toilet paper rolls in such a manner that whenevera toilet paper roll in the paying-out position has been exhausted, theempty core which remains after the paper roll has been exhausted isdischarged out of the paying-out position and at the same time, a new orspare toilet paper roll is placed into the now vacant paying-outposition.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a relativelysimpler transfer mechanism which can perform the discharge of the emptycore out of the payingout position and the placement of the spare toiletpaper into the paying-out position left vacant after the discharge ofthe empty core in a single step.

The above and other objects and attendant advantages of the presentinvention will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art froma reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings which show one preferred embodiment of theinvention for illustration purpose only, but not for limiting the scopeof the same in any way.

i BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevational viewof one preferred embodiment of toilet paper roll holding deviceaccording to the present invention with a portion thereof broken awayin' order to show the inner construction of FIG. 4 is a fragmentaryperspective view of the lower portion of said housing of the toiletpaper roll holding device of FIG. I; and

FIG. 5 is similar to FIG 4, but shows a modified form of said rollreceiving and core 'discharge'member for the toilet paper roll holdingdevice of the invention.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be nowdescribed referring to the accompanying drawings and more particularly,to FIGS. 1 through 4 inclusive thereof which show a preferred embodimentof toilet paper roll holding device of the invention. The toilet paperroll holding device is generally shown by reference numeral I andgenerally comprises a substantially rectangular vertically extendingintegral housing 2 of rectangular crosssection as seen in the horizon.The housing 2 is open at the top and bottom and includes a pair ofopposite side walls 3, 3, a rear wall 4 and a front wall 5 which isshorter than the rear wall and has the upper and lower ends whichterminate short of the corresponding ends of the rear wall 4,respectively. The open top of the housing I is normally closed by anupper cover 6 which has a substantially arcuate cross-section and ispivoted at the rear end to the upper end of the housing 1 by means of atransverse pivot pin 7 which is in turn suitably supported at theopposite ends in the pair of housing side walls 3. The bottom endof thehousing 1 is also normally closed by a lower cover 8 which also has asubstantially arcuate cross-section and is pivoted at the rear end tothe lower end of the housing 1 by means of a transverse pivot pin 9which is in turn suitably supported at the opposite ends in the housingside walls 3. When the upper and lower covers 6 and 8 are in theirclosed position, the front ends of the covers sealingly engage the upperand lower ends of the housing front wall 5. For the purpose, the free orfront ends of both the covers are offset and the upper and lower ends ofthe housing front wall 5 are also correspondingly offset. As willappear, the upper cover 6 is pivoted to the open position when one ormore toilet paper rolls R are desired to be received into the housing 1.The lower cover 8 is pivoted to the open position when the empty cores Cof the toilet paper rolls, which have been exhausted or almostexhausted, are desired to be taken out of the holding device. In FIGS. 1and 2, three toilet paper rolls are disposed within the housing 1 oneupon another with their axes extending horizontally and in parallel toeach other. These paper rolls are shown by reference numerals R, R andR", respectively with the lowest roll R positioned in the dispensing orpaying-out position and the remaining rolls R, R" positioned in thestand-by position. The front wall 5 of thehousing 1 is provided with anaccess or dispensing opening or window It) in a position adjacent andopposite to the paper roll R in the lowest or paying-out position sothat the user can grip and pull out the leading end of the paper roll Rwith his fingers. A cutting blade 11 extends across a position adjacentto or slightly above the lower edge of the access in a slightly spacedrelationship to the lower edge of the window 10 and has a sawtoothshaped cutting edge 12 along the lower edge of the blade againstwhich the paid-out leading end of the paper roll R can be sheared offfrom the remaining portion of the same paper roll. To describe in moredetail, the user grips and pulls out the leading end of the roll by adesired or necessary length and then pushes the leading paper endupwardly against and along the cutting edge 12.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3 more particularly, the inner surface ofeach of the pair of housing side walls 3, 3 is provided with a first orlonger land 13 which extends vertically from the upper end of theassociated side wall 3 to a substantially mid-point of the height of theside wall and laterally from the rear wall 4 of the housing to aposition short of the center of the width of the same side wall. Theinner surface of each of the pair of housing side walls 3, 3 is alsoprovided with a second or shorter land 13' which extends vertically fromthe upper end of the associated side wall and laterally from the frontwall 5 of the housing to a portion spaced from the first land 13 so asto define a paper roll core receiving and guide groove 14 between theopposite inner side edges of the first and second lands 13, 13. Thewidth of the thus defined groove 14 is slightly greater than thediameter of the core of a standard toilet paper roll so that the corecan be freely received and guided along the grooves 14, 14. The lowerend of the second or shorter land 13 lies in a plane above the plane ofthe lower end of the first or longer land 13 for the purpose to bedescribed hereinafter. Thus, it will be noted that each of the corereceiving'and guide grooves 14, 14 has two different length sides. Arockable integral paper roll receiving and core discharge member isprovided within the housing 1 below the core receiving and guide grooves14, 14 and is pivotably supported by the opposite housing side walls 3,3. For the purpose, the roll receiving and core discharge member 20 hasa pair of similar spaced parallel upright arms 21, 21 extending upwardlyfrom the opposite ends.'As more clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the arms21, 21 are in the form of a pawl each of which arms has a substantiallyhorizontal paper roll core engaging upper end 22 adapted to normallyengage the underside of one end of the core of one paper roll. This isthe lower roll R of the two paper rolls in the stand-by positionwithinthe housing of the illustrated paper roll holding device. Thus theparticular paper roll R is prevented from inadvertently falling into thedispensing or paying-out position within the housing 1 while the paperroll R is still in the paying-out position or has not yet beenexhausted. The lower portions of the arms 21, 21 bulge rearwardly andare integrally connected together by a transverse connection part 23which is integral with the arms 21, 21 and extends across the frontedges of the lower portions of the arms. The arms 21,21 have alignedholes 21, 21 adjacent to their upper ends for receiving pivot pins 15,15 extending inwardly from the opposite side walls 3, 3 of the housing 1so that the paper roll receiving and core discharge member 20 can bepivoted about the pins 15, 15. An arcuate guide track 16 is integrallyformed with the inner surface of each of the housing side walls 3, 3

for slidably supporting and guiding the upwardly curved underside of therespectively associated arm 21 of the rockable paper roll receiving andcore discharge member 20. The arcuate guide tracks 16, 16 extend fromthe housing front wall 5 towards the housing rear' wall 4 with theirconcaved surfaces on the top and terminate short of the rear wall by adistance slightly larger than the diameter of one paper roll core forthe purpose to be described hereinbelow. The rear edge of I each of thearms 21, 21 has an upper or larger arcuate recess 21a and a lower orsmaller arcuate recess 21b separated from each other by an intermediateprojection 21c. The recesses 21a, 21a serve as guide means for the coreof the lower standing-by paper roll R as the particular paper roll isallowed to move down the stand-by position to the payingout position andthe recesses 21b, 21b serve as holding means for the core of the paperroll in the paying-out position. For the purpose, the recesses, 21b, 21bhave a radius of curvature substantially corresponding to the contour ofthe paper roll core. The mass of the member 20 and position of the holes21, 21 in the arms 21, 21 of the member are so selected that the centerof gravity of the member is positioned below the center of its heightand thus. the member 20 is urged in the clockwise direction to the fullline position as shown in FIG. 2 by the weight of a full paper rollwhich is supported on the guide tracks 16, 16 and pivots to the chainand dot line as the paper roll is consumed. in the full line position ofthe rockable paper roll receiving and core discharge member 20, theupper ends 22, 22 of the arms 21, 21 of the member 20 enter the coreguide grooves 14, 14 and engage the underside of the opposite ends ofthe core C of the lower paper roll R in the stand-by position to preventthe roll R from falling down from the stand-by position. When the roll Rin the paying-out position has been exhausted, the paper roll receivingand core discharge member 20 is pivoted in the counter-clockwisedirection to the chain and dot line position as shown in FIG. 2 so as todischarge the now empty core C from the tracks l6, 16 through the spaceor passage defined by the rear ends of the tracks 16, 16 and the rearwall 4 of the housing 1 into the empty core accumulation space below thetracks 16 which are defined by the tracks, the lower cover 8 and therear wall 4 of the housing 1. For positively pivoting the rockable rollreceiving and core discharge member 20 from the full line position tothe chain and dot line position, an operation knob 24,is provided on theouter surface of one of the arms 21, 21 (the right-hand arm as seen inFIG.

3). Operation knob 24 projects out of a slot 17 formed in the adjacenthousing side wall 3 for manual operation (see FIG. 4). As will be easilyunderstood, when it is desired to discharge the empty core C, the paperroll of which has been exhausted, the user grips and pulls the knob 24rearwards along the slot 17 until the rockable roll receiving and coredischarge member 20 reaches the chain and dot line position as seen inFIG. 2. The now empty core C is discharged from the guide tracks 16, 16through the core discharge passage into the empty core accumulationspace. At the same time, the upper ends 22, 22 of the arms 21, 21 clearthe grooves 14, 14 and become disengaged from the underside of theopposite ends of the core C of the lower paper roll R in the stand-byposition. This allows the roll R to fall into the paying-out position inwhich the opposite ends of the core C of the roll R are sup ported onthe guide tracks '16, 16.

Assuming that the toilet paper roll holding device of the invention isin its initial position for use with three full toilet paper rolls R, Rand R positioned in the positions as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,respectively, that is, the roll R is in thedispensing or paying-outposition and the remaining two rolls R and R are in the stand-byposition one upon another with their cores C and C retained in thegrooves 14, 14, the opposite ends of the core C of the roll R in thepaying-out position are supported on the tracks 16, 16 and preventedfrom inadvertently moving out of the tracks by the second recesses 21b,21b of the arms 21, 21 while the two rolls R and R in the stand-byposition are prevented from inadvertently falling down out of thestand-by position because the horizontal upper ends 22, 22 of the arms21, 21 of the rockable member 20 engage the underside of the core of thelower paper roll R in the standby position. When a full toilet paperroll is in the paying-out or dispensing position with its core restingon the tracks l6, 16, the rockable roll receiving and core dischargemember 20 is urged in the clockwise direction (FIG. 2) to abut againstthe front wall 5 of the housing by the gravity of the paper roll. Forthe purpose, the distance D from the bottom of the recess 21b to thefront edge of each arm 21 is selected as being substantially equal tothe thickness of paper layers in a full standard toilet paper roll.However, as the diameter of the paper roll decreases gradually while thepaper is dispensed, the member 20 is gradually urged to pivot in thecounterclockwise direction about the pivot pins l5, (FIG. 2) and sliderearwardly along the tracks l6, 16 by the gravity of the lower portionsof the rockable roll receiving and core discharge member 20 to push thecore C along the tracks 16, 16 towards the core discharge passage. Whenthe paper roll in the paying-out position has been consumed orsubstantially consumed, the center of gravity of the arms 21, 21 of themember 20 come to lie in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the pivotpins l5, l5 whereupon the pivotal movement of the member 20 in thecounter-clockwise direction ceases and cannot further push the corerearwardly. Then, the user grips the knob 24 and pushes the knobrearwardly along the slot 17 to further pivot the member 20 about thepins 15, 15 in the counterclockwise direction and to slide the member 20further rearwards along the tracks 16, 16 thereby to discharge the emptycore beyond the rear edges of the tracks l6, l6 into the empty coreaccumulation space. Since the upper ends 22, 22 of the arms 21, 21 ofthe roll receiving and core discharge member 20 retract from the grooves14, 14 in the housing side walls 3, 3 and disengage from the core C ofthe roll R as the member 20 is pivoted to its limit in thecounter-clockwise direction, the lower toilet paper roll R in thestand-by position is allowed to fall into the paying-out or dispensingposition and the new paper roll in the paying-out posi- I tion urges themember 20 to pivot back about the pins l5, 15 in the clockwise directionto advance the upper ends 22, 22 of the arms 21, 21 into the grooves 14,14 so that the opposite ends of the core C of the remaining paper rollR" in the stand-by position may rest on the arm upper ends 22, 22. Theentry of the paper roll R into the paying-out or dispensing position isaccelerated by the above-mentioned particular configuration of the rearedges of the arms 21, 21 and of the guide tracks l6, l6 and theparticular roll can be effectively prevented from bouncing off thetracks l6, 16 as the roll falls down into the paying-out position. Itmay be the possibility of bouncing of the paper roll when the roll hitsagainst the projections 21c, 21c ofthe arms 21, 2l as the roll fallsfrom the stand-by position along the rear edges of the arms into thepaying-out position, but since the core is loosely inserted in thebobbin on which the paper roll is wound so that the core may be allowedto radially displace relative to the bobbin, the inertia of suchbouncing can be absorbed by such radial displacement of the corerelative to the bobbin.

Referring to FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings which shows amodification of the connection part which connects the arms 21, 21 ofthe rockable roll receiving and core discharge member 20 together andthe modified connection part is shown by reference numeral 23a. Portionof the modified connection part 23a is exposed in the window 10 foraccess. Thus. in the construction of FIG. 5, the knob 24 and slot 17 inthe construction of FIGS. 2 through 4 are eliminated. In order todischarge the empty core. the user pushes the connection part 23arearwardly to cause the rockable roll receiving and core dischargemember 20 to pivot in the counterclockwise direction and slide along thetracks 16, 16 thereby to discharge the empty core into the empty coreaccumulation space and at the same time to allow the next or spare paperroll to fall into the now vacant paying-out position.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, when the paper roll inthe paying-out position has not been yet completely exhausted, the coreof such a roll cannot be aligned in the core discharge passage definedbetween the tracks and the rear wall of the housing and accordingly,such a paper roll cannot be taken out of the device even if the rockablepaper roll receiving and core discharge member is pushed rearwardlythereby to protect the paper roll against possible pillage.

From the above description of the invention, it will be understood thatthe discharge of an empty core from the paying-out position and theplacement of a new paper roll from the stand-by position into thepayingout position can be effected by a simple common mechanism and thatsince rockable paper roll receiving and core discharge memberautomatically pivots and slidably moves as the paper roll in thepaying-out position is exhausted, the empty core discharge from thetracks and the entry of a new paper roll into the paying- -out positionare quite simple requiring only a slight amount of manual effort.

While only one embodiment of the invention has been shown and describedin detail it will be understood that the same is for illustrationpurpose only and not to be taken as a definition of the invention, reference being bad for this purpose to the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A toilet paper roll holding device comprising an elongated verticallyextending housing opening at the top and bottom ends for receiving aplurality of toilet paper rolls one upon another and including a frontwall provided with a paper dispensing window, a rear wall spaced fromand parallel to said front wall and a pair of spaced and parallel sidewalls; a top cover pivoted to said open top end of the housing; a bottomcover pivoted to said open bottom end of the housing; and a papershearing blade provided on said front wall adjacent to said dispensingwindow, a rockable paper roll receiving and core discharge memberpivoted adjacent to the top end to said side walls and including a pairof opposite and spaced parallel upright arms integrally connected attheir front edges by a transverse connection part, each of said uprightarms bulging rearwardly and downwardly to position the center of gravitythereof at a point below the mid-point of the height to be urgedforwardly by the weight of a paper roll in the dispensing positionadjacent to said window and pivots backwardly as the paper roll isconsumed and having a core engaging bent upper end for moving to engageand disengage from the underside of the lowest one of said paper rollcores, the rear edge provided with an upper larger arcuate recess and alower smaller arcuate recess separated from said upper recess by anintermediate projection and the upwardly arcuated lower edge; a pair ofupwardly arcuated guide tracks formed with the inner surfaces of saidside walls in a position to slidably engage said arcuated lower edges ofthe arms so as to hold said paper roll in the dispensing position incooperation with said lower smaller recesses in the rear edges of thearms and to slidably guide said rockable member and the core of saidpaper roll in the dispensing position as the paper roll is consumed andthe rockable member pivots rearwardly accordingly to move the empty coreto the discharge position; and operation means for said rockable memberto positively pivot the rockable member and slide the member on saidtracks rearwardly.

2. The toilet paper roll holding device as set forth in claim 1, inwhich said tracks extend from said front wall of the housing andterminate short of said rear wall of the housing to define an empty coredischarge passage therebetween.

3. The toilet paper roll holding device as set forth in claim 1, inwhich said operation means comprises a knob extending laterally from oneof said arms out of one of said side walls of the housing and anelongated slot formed in the one side wall for receiving said knob.

4. The toilet paper roll holding device as set forth in claim 1, furthercomprising vertical paper roll core receiving and guiding grooves eachdefined by opposite and spaced parallel lands on the inner surface ofeach of said side walls for holding the core or cores of one or morepaper rolls therein, said lands having different lengths with the lowerend of one land lying in a plane above the plane of the lower end of theother land.

1. A toilet paper roll holding device comprising an elongated verticallyextending housing opening at the top and bottom ends for receiving aplurality of toilet paper rolls one upon another and including a frontwall provided with a paper dispensing window, a rear wall spaced fromand parallel to said front wall and a pair of spaced and parallel sidewalls; a top cover pivoted to said open top end of the housing; a bottomcover pivoted to said open bottom end of the housing; and a papershearing blade provided on said front wall adjacent to said dispensingwindow, a rockable paper roll receiving and core discharge memberpivoted adjacent to the top end to said side walls and including a pairof opposite and spaced parallel upright arms integrally connected attheir front edges by a transverse connection part, each of said uprightarms bulging rearwardly and downwardly to position the center of gravitythereof at a point below the mid-point of the height to be urgedforwardly by the weight of a paper roll in the dispensing positionadjacent to said window and pivots backwardly as the paper roll isconsumed and having a core engaging bent upper end for moving to engageand disengage from the underside of the lowest one of said paper rollcores, the rear edge provided with an upper larger arcuate recess and alower smaller arcuate recess separated from said upper recess by anintermediate projection and the upwardly arcuated lower edge; a pair ofupwardly arcuated guide tracks formed with the inner surfaces of saidside walls in a position to slidably engage said arcuated lower edges ofthe arms so as to hold said paper roll in the dispensing position incooperation with said lower smaller recesses in the rear edges of thearms and to slidably guide said rockable member and the core of saidpaper roll in the dispensing position as the paper roll is consumed andthe rockable member pivots rearwardly accordingly to move the empty coreto the discharge position; and operation means for said rockable memberto positively pivot the rockable member and slide the member on saidtracks rearwardly.
 2. The toilet paper roll holding device as set forthin claim 1, in which said tracks extend from said front wall of thehousing and terminate short of said rear wall of the housing to definean empty core discharge passage therebetween.
 3. The toilet paper rollholding device as set forth in claim 1, in which said operation meanscomprises a knob extending laterally from one of said arms out of one ofsaid side walls of the housing and an elongated slot formed in the oneside wall for receiving said knob.
 4. The toilet paper roll holdingdevice as set forth in claim 1, further comprising vertical paper rollcore receiving and guiding grooves each defined by opposite and spacedparallel lands on the inner surface of each of said side walls forholding the core or cores of one or more paper rolls therein, said landshaving different lengths with the lower end of one land lying in a planeabove the plane of the lower end of the other land.